Him

10: He Brings Up The Past Pt.2

James:

About 10 months ago...

"Good game James!" I smile at my friend Dean as he heads to the shower room, "Thanks, man. You too."

"Hey, I just do what I do best."

I shake my head in amusement, stuffing my towel in my basketball gym bag.

I head out of the gym, looking both ways for my girlfriend, Isabella.

We have been dating for a little over 2 years and she tries to come to most of my games.

Of course, she wasn't here tonight, she must have been with her best friend, Theo.

I hate that guy.

He's practically told me he was in love with Isa and that he'd remained in her life whether I liked it or not.

Like tonight, where I just won a big game, and she wasn't here to celebrate.

"James?"

I turn to the voice to find Isabella's friend.

I believe her name was Monica, something like that.

She comes close to me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"That was an amazing game! Where's Isa?"

"Thank you, and I don't know. Probably with Theo."

"I don't know how you do it. You're dating both of them."

She had a point, but I tried to shake it off.

"Nah, that's her best friend. I get it. She never asks me to leave my friends for her."

"At some point, you'll get tired of it though. Anyways, I got to go. Nice seeing you."

She waves and turns around, heading to her car.

What she said sort of bother me as I drove back to my apartment.

◇

"Hey, where were you?"

Isabella sets her keys down and comes to sit next to me on the bed.

"Well, hi to you too."

She chuckles, kissing the side of my face.

"There's this new store in the mall. Theo and I found some cool stuff, wanna see?"

"No, it's okay. I thought you were coming to my game tonight."

Her eyes widen and she holds onto my arm.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I forgot. I'll go to the next one, okay?"

"Yeah, let's just go to bed."

◇

8 months ago...

We won another game, a big rival that we've been planning for, for some months now.

Of course, this meant Dean had to throw one of his famous parties.

"Chug! Chug! Chug!"

The guys on the team chant and I move around to get to the pool table.

"Hey, where's your girl?"

I point behind me and Dean laughs.

"Damn, you left her alone."

"She'll be okay, she's with Theo and her friends."

He nods, passing me a pool stick.

We play a couple of games, laughing and having a couple of beers and I look up to see Monica.